A fire burns early Thursday morning in the Sepulveda Pass. (KTLA)
A fire was burning Thursday morning in Bel-Air on the eastern side of the 405 Freeway in the Sepulveda Pass.
The fire was burning uphill, toward Sepulveda Fire Road. Winds in the area were around 8 to 15 mph, with gusts of up to 25 mph, said Todd Hall, meteorologist with the National Weather Service. The air was very dry, with relative humidity from 3% to 8%.
Multiple fire engines were at the scene. Firefighting helicopters were dropping water then filling up at the nearby Stone Canyon Reservoir.
News of the fire broke shortly after 11 p.m. Wednesday, and the blaze appeared to grow quickly. At about 12:50 a.m., the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the fire was at 20 acres with 0% containment. Around that time, TV footage appeared to show the fire slowing, its glow diminishing.
“The combined aerial and ground attack has made good progress against the fire,” the L.A. Fire Department said in an update.
An evacuation warning was issued and remained in effect as of around 1 a.m. for parts of Bel-Air and Brentwood, including Mount Saint Mary’s University, as well as homes along Casiano Road, Moraga Drive and Chalon Road. Multimillion-dollar homes line Moraga Drive, many featuring tennis courts.
The Hotel Angeleno was evacuating 121 people due to the nearby fire, which was just across the 405 Freeway from the hotel, according to a front desk worker.
The Getty Center, which is just south of the fire, had “activated fire protection measures and will continue to provide updates as they become available,” Alexandria Sivak, a spokesperson for the J. Paul Getty Trust, said in an email early Thursday morning.
Moraga Bel Air Vineyards, owned by Rupert Murdoch, was among properties in the evacuation warning area. Murdoch reportedly paid $30 million for the 16-acre site in 2013.
Murdoch is known to spend time at the estate. He married his fifth wife, Elena Zhukova, a former Russian molecular biologist, at Moraga last June.
This is not the property‘s first brush with wildfires. Parts of the vineyard were scorched during the Skirball fire in 2017.
Some UCLA students expressed anxiety on social media at news of the fire. Although the university is not in an evacuation area, the fire could be seen from the campus.
“bruh I’m so stressed, it’s too late to catch a flight now and idk where I’d even go if we have to evacuate,” one Reddit user wrote.
“I feel you. I don’t even know how I’m supposed to sleep rn I HAVE A QUIZ TOMORROW,” another user responded.
The Sepulveda fire comes amid a busy day for firefighters.
A huge fire exploded Wednesday north of Castaic, charring more than 10,000 acres and forcing thousands to flee their homes amid a month of extreme fire conditions that have plagued Southern California.
The Hughes fire started off Lake Hughes Road just before 11 a.m. and quickly prompted evacuation orders in and around Castaic Lake, which by afternoon extended toward Ventura County to the west and near Sandberg to the north. More than 31,000 people were ordered to evacuate, and warnings were issued to 23,000 others.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
